Allie Caran and Zach Botham were devastated when three burglars broke into their apartment and stole their prized one-year-old French bulldog, Oliver. They got a second shock when they went to police and learned that what to them was a terrible dog-napping was to police a simple theft.
The suspect arrested for stealing Oliver was only charged with burglary and grand larceny, and that did not sit well with Botham.
“If you steal someone’s dog, you are kidnapping,” said Botham. “If either you or me went missing, people wouldn’t care nearly as much as they do when a dog goes missing. Oliver is everybody’s little homey.”
There are no laws that specifically pertain to the theft of pets, leaving police and prosecutors to rely on property crime statutes and base their punishment of dog thieves on the monetary value of the stolen pooch.
Perpetrators are charged with a petit larceny if the animal is worth less that $1,000 and grand larceny if the animal is worth more, meaning ne’er-do-wells who steal dogs get off easier if they go after mutts than if they target purebreds. Oliver’s suspected dog-napper is facing the more serious charge because the Greenpoint couple bought the pup from a breeder for $2,500.
Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D–Greenpoint) is working to make the law on pet-napping reflect the bereavement of animal lovers — and not weigh puppies the same as car stereos.
“The current law does not allow for the severity of the loss,” Lentol said. “You have a companion and the law treats it like it is a piece of property.”
Lentol has introduced a bill that would create specific penalties for pet-nappers into the state assembly, but he said it has been languishing for the last three years. The law, dubbed Laika’s Law after a dog who was stolen from outside of a Fort Greene grocery store in 2009, would make stealing someone’s pet a class C felony, punishable by four years in jail. The charge would be upped to a class D felony with a seven year maximum sentence if the stolen animal was harmed or sold for dog fighting or to a lab.
Lentol said he hopes the dog-napping of Oliver will help his bill get more traction this year and echoed Botham’s point about people’s connection to pets.
“These pets are like these people’s kids,” he said.
The past few months have seen a jarring number of crimes against canines:
Last month, a man was arrested in Prospect Park for beating and stabbing dogs and encouraging his pit bull to bite them in multiple attacks over the course of several months. He is facing charges of animal cruelty, harassment, menacing, and weapons possession.
Earlier in the summer, a dog owner held a bloodthirsty hound by the leash and watched it attack and kill a tiny Pomeranian named Arlo, who, like Oliver, was celebrating his first birthday.
